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Betelgeusians
Betelgeusians. Betelgeusians are an insectoid species of unknown origin and the primary source of conflict in Coalition space. First encountered by the Brokers around the year 2300, and later by the UNN in 2598 during the event known as the Betelgeuse Incident, their ruthless life cycle demands that they attempt to seize and hold any habitable planets that they come across. Biology. The Betelgeusians are a race of bipedal, sentient insects. Their bodies are coated in a hard exoskeleton that acts as biological armor, jointed in places so as not to impede movement. The material has been compared to somewhat flexible plastics. It is smooth and dry to the touch and comes in a large range of iridescent colors that can differ wildly between individuals. The nervous system extends to the surface of the carapace to give the Bugs a sense of touch comparable to that of a human, with rich nerve endings in the hands, mandibles and other key areas. The carapace also aids in respiration, as Betelgeusians lack lungs and instead breathe through spiracles in their exoskeletons. Betelgeusians have been observed operating in hostile environments, in deep water and even in open space without supplemental protection, which suggests that their exoskeletons are exceptionally resistant to pressure and temperature changes. It is unknown for precisely how long they can endure vacuum, but those operating in oceanic environments have been found to have the necessary adaptations to filter oxygen from the water. While they live in a caste structure, their castes have some basic similarities. Betelgeusians have six limbs, two of which serve as legs and four of which serve as arms. They have two fingers and one thumb on both pairs of hands, as well as three-toed feet. Between the legs is an ovipositor with three prehensile, finger-like appendages that can both receive genetic material from males and lay eggs in the rare case that it becomes necessary for the survival of the hive. While they possess mandibles, the muscles are weak and they are almost completely vestigial, the various castes obtaining their nourishment from Repletes rather than from solid foods. They possess long, flexible tongues whose purpose seems to be tasting the air and examining objects. Communication is achieved through a complex language of pheromones and scents, which can convey everything from emotions to highly detailed information. This pheromone language can also be written on objects, lingering for long periods of time under the right conditions in order to serve as markers or signposts. They do not appear to communicate using sound, but are capable of hearing, as they will react to audio cues in their environment. They do not possess ears and so they likely sense vibrations in the air through their exoskeletons. All of the castes possess ornate horns, which vary greatly in design and appearance. It has been theorized that their unique horns, combined with the colors of their shells, might help serve to identify individuals who are out of pheromone range. The horns can take on many appearances, such as those of a stag beetle, the antlers of a moose or a deer, or even the branches of a tree. One noteworthy aspect of their physiology is that while their brain is housed in their head, the stem extends deep into the torso, making headshots an unreliable method of dispatching them. It is recommended that Coalition soldiers aim for the solar plexus in order to inflict maximum damage. Life Cycle. The life cycle of the Betelgeusians is one of perpetual expansion, creating intense competition for habitable planets. This cycle begins when a Betelgeusian Queen births another reproductively viable Queen. Her offspring is given a finite amount of time to birth her own brood and to begin construction of her own fleet. Depending on the status of the parent hive and the availability of resources, these fleets and armies can become vast in size, with several hive ships and a large support fleet, along with millions of soldiers. Once her time is up, the new Queen will be expected to board her hive ship and set out into space in order to locate a new planet upon which to found her own colony. This stage of their life cycle is roughly equivalent to the nuptial flights observed in some species of social insects. Beyond this point, other hives that the new Queen encounters will be hostile, and in the case that no new planet is located before the fleet's limited resources run out, it is common for the fleet to turn on established Betelgeusian hives in order to secure living space. In very rare circumstances, a defeated hive may surrender rather than be exterminated if it is determined that their genetic material will benefit the victor, resulting in them being absorbed into the conquering hive. In the case that the fleet encounters a planet inhabited by other sentient species, the fleet will attempt to exterminate them completely through a large-scale military invasion, lest they face the risk of starvation and death. It is unlikely that the fleet will have enough resources to leave the system and attempt to find another suitable home, and so planetary invasions are often brutal and desperate affairs. Caste System. The Betelgeusians are social insects that live in hives with a rigid caste system. Each caste has a unique form that fulfills a specific purpose, be it combat, labor or the production of food. No two hives are exactly the same and the longer a single hive survives, the more varied and specialized its forms will become. Drones. Drones are the front line soldiers of the Betelgeusian hives. At around five feet tall, they are small and unassuming when compared to many Coalition species, but they are fearless warriors who possess formidable fighting prowess. Able to endure injuries that would kill a human, lift several times their body weight, and completely lacking any self-preservation instincts makes them dangerous and relentless combatants. Synthetic armor is commonly used to supplement their carapace, which is designed to be indistinguishable from the creature's natural exoskeleton in both color and texture. As such it can be difficult to tell at a glance where the armor ends and the natural exoskeleton begins. Drones also wear helmets to protect their sensitive eyes and mandibles, the lenses of which give them the appearance of compound eyes. Like other castes they have two pairs of arms, the upper pair being somewhat longer and more robust than the lower. The upper pair often carry plasma pistols or energy shields, which the lower are commonly used to wield the ornate knives that are sheathed in shaped recesses in their thigh armor. Female Drones are wingless, while the minority of reproductive males sport a pair of gossamer wings that permit limited flight. It is rare for males to risk themselves in combat, only being observed in the most dire of situations where the hive is under extreme threat, but in battles they have been known to act as paratroopers, using their wings to land behind enemy defenses or to attack from high vantage points. Workers. Workers make up the labor force of the Betelgeusian hives. At around four feet tall they are even smaller than Drones, although they are stockier in appearance and markedly stronger, able to lift many times their own body weight. Their upper pair of arms are long and sturdy, with shovel-like hands designed for excavating the tunnels that make up the layout of their hives. Their lower pair of arms are far smaller than the upper pair and far more dexterous. They use these to assemble technology such as plasma pistols, to service machinery and to perform medical procedures. Despite their oafish appearance, Workers are in fact very careful and precise workers, with medical skills that would put many human doctors to shame. Their saliva has special properties that allows it to harden, creating a resin-like substance that seals in the dirt during their excavations. It can also be used as an adhesive for engineering or medical purposes, closing wounds and gluing components together. Workers are often tasked with cleaning other castes, using their long tongues to probe inside the joints of their exoskeletons, removing dirt and polishing the carapace. Workers are easily startled or frightened, responding strongly to pheromones that indicate stress, anger or fear. Pilots. Pilots are responsible for interfacing with the many Betelgeusian vehicles, such as the spacecraft of their Hive Fleets and their fearsome Warriors, bio-mechanical battle suits possessing superior armor and weaponry that most often serve in support of Drone armies. At seven feet they are among the tallest of the Betelgeusian castes, with bodies that appear lanky and stretched in comparison to their more squat counterparts. They are relatively fragile and are unsuited to combat outside of their vehicles. Their limbs are long, with spindly fingers that are extremely sensitive and dexterous, allowing the fine manipulation of their technology. Along their spines, their nervous systems are open to the air, with exposed tissue that resembles brain matter protruding from between the plates of their carapace. There are orifices within this tissue that are used to interface directly with the nervous systems of the bio-mechanical vehicles that they pilot via connective tendrils. Repletes. Repletes are responsible for feeding the other castes. Using a set of extremely sharp and powerful mandibles, they are able to consume almost any biological matter, from wood and plant matter to muscle and bone. Their bodies render what they eat into a nutrient-rich paste, golden in color and with the consistency of honey. This sweet fluid is then fed to the other castes, providing them with all of the sustenance that they require. During the journey across interstellar space, the honey that the Repletes bring with them is the only source of food available. Much like honey ants, the Repletes have translucent sacks on their chests and abdomens that will swell with nutrient paste, giving them a bloated appearance when laden with fluid. The largest sack is located on the lower abdomen, where the armored plates will splay apart to allow the flexible, tough skin to expand to its maximum capacity. The two sacks on the chest will also engorge with fluid. These have a breast-like appearance, evolved to dispense fluid to the other castes. Repletes are large and stocky in comparison to the other castes, with oversized mouth parts designed for shearing through tough food items and a reinforced lower pair of arms that allows them to drop a four-legged gait not unlike that of a gorilla when carrying a great deal of fluid. Their upper arms are equipped with blades that are mounted on the wrist, and are designed to shear away parts of their food that will not fit into their mouths. Repletes have been known to accompany units of Drones shortly after a battle, eating the bodies of both friend and foe in order to recycle their nutrients. If a member of the hive dies, it will also likely end up in the belly of a Replete. Queen. The Queen is both the heart and the brain of the hive. She can reach upwards of twelve feet in height and sports an enormous, ornate headdress the size of a truck's hood. When mobile, Queens can be formidable adversaries due to their size and strength. The Queen will most commonly sit atop her egg sack, which is anchored to the ceiling and suspended a short distance off the floor. A flexible, segmented anchor not only secures her to the roof, but also serves to link her nervous system to that of her hive. In the case that the Queen is piloting a hive ship in space, she will tap into its nervous system in order to issue commands to the vessel, communicate with her fleet, and also to share information from the vessel's sensory equipment. Once a hive is established, her Workers will dig a brood chamber for her and she will anchor herself to its ceiling, where the appendage will tap into a network of organic wires and cables that run through the length of the colony. These can be connected to surveillance cameras, organic computer consoles, and other varieties of wetware throughout the structure. The Queen's primary purpose is to populate her hive with new offspring, copulating with winged Drones and then storing their genetic information for later use. She has extremely fine control over the genetic code of her children, able to make edits and changes in order to produce new forms or to modify existing castes to suit her purposes. For that reason, no two hives are ever exactly alike, and may indeed vary greatly. It appears that the Queens all build off of the same genetic blueprints, and so the longer a hive survives, the more specialized and unusual its castes become. In an emergency situation the Queen can break free of her tether, leaving her egg sack behind and becoming mobile. If the situation is resolved, she will eventually regrow a new sack, while the old one must be discarded along with any eggs that were incubating at the time. A Queen's intelligence should not be underestimated. She can calculate orbital trajectories and superlight jumps without the need of flight computers, and Queens are also expert tacticians, able to command vast fleets and armies with an impressive level of coordination. As well as manipulating the genetic code of their offspring, they also design the vessels and technologies that their hive uses. This means that encountering unknown weapons and ships when fighting against Betelgeusians is likely and should be taken into account. Although the other castes are able to reproduce with winged Drones in order to replenish their numbers if the Queen cannot keep pace, if the Queen dies then the hive is doomed to extinction.Category:Hive Fleets.